Seph & Jat
by katiroth
Summary: there's a bit of language, that's why it ain't 'G'. what to say about this? sephiroth meets and makes actual friends with the strangest people. that'll do.
1. Default Chapter Why 'chapters?

right.  
  
hi everyone. look, if you wanna get to the story, just GO STRAIGHT TO THE NEXT CHAPTER.  
  
what now? i s'pose this is where i say that i own nothing, etc, etc?  
  
well, what else do i need to say?  
  
hey, you know what the funny thing is? i haven't actually PLAYED the game yet. i'm going to start very soon, so, yeah.  
  
a friend of mine reckons i know more about ffvii than some people that HAVE played it.  
  
***  
  
hi again.  
  
update: I HAVE STARTED THE GAME! I PLAYED FOR, LIKE SIX HOURS STRAIGHT, AND WAS FORCED TO STOP RIGHT AFTER THAT BATTLE AVEC RUFUS.  
  
sure, i was meant to be studying for a maths exam, but hey.  
  
i'm good at maths, anyway.  
  
i can only play it at my friend's house, on account of not actually OWNING a playstation, of any variety, or the game.  
  
well, salut. 


	2. Chapter One Meeting

sephiroth wasn't concentrating on the documents in front of him. he was alternating which ones he signed yes on, and which ones got denied. he looked at the document he'd just signed yes on, and swore to himself. it was an invitation to some dinner party at some wealthy politian's house. dammit. now he would have to go.  
  
***  
  
he was less than happy when he arrived. they went to dinner first. there was something like twenty other guests. the politian was thriophe, a right ****. he had a wife and a son who were both somehow involved with politics, and their young daughter was too young yet. at dinner, he was given a seat in between the young girl and the wife, who was at the end of the table, so that limited the number of people that would try and talk to him.  
  
he was looking in a dark mood, and anyone so far that had tried to talk to him had been given a polite 'piss off and leave me alone'.  
  
halfway through dinner, though:  
  
"please excuse my asking, but why are you so dark to be here?"  
  
it was the young daughter. she hadn't been acting like a child all evening. she hadn't spoken a word, until then.  
  
"forgive me if i seem rude, but why do you care?"  
  
"that's not rude, that's a fair question. i care because i can't help but feel that you think you could be either in better company this evening, or you loath politians as much as i do, or both."  
  
he looked at the little girl. she can't have been more than ten, but she was speaking in a very adult way, much the same way as he did when he was young.  
  
"it was both, but now i don't think i've been in the company of such certain interesting people before."  
  
what would she make of the quite cryptic reply?  
  
she quickly scanned the table before turning to face him again.  
  
"how am i so interesting?"  
  
"what makes you so sure that it's you i was referring to?"  
  
"everyone else at this table is somehow invloved in politics, and we both know what the other thinks of politics."  
  
"how old are you?"  
  
"i turn, uh, ten next week."  
  
"i must say that you seem wise beyond your years."  
  
"my family and their friends think it irritating, but my friends think it's good, because i can buy booze, and say 'are you discriminating against dwarves? i'll have you arrested for that!'"  
  
"you buy booze with your friends?"  
  
"my friends are the eight to eleven year old slum ratbags that i've met on explorations. the other kids my age that my parents believe to be my friends are merely aquaintances."  
  
"are you adopted?"  
  
she laughed. "no, but it's quite fair of you to think so."  
  
she was sure that she almost saw the ghost of smile, but it was too quick to be sure.  
  
"what is your name?"  
  
"i am jatrian. parents and aquaintances call me jatri, my friends call me jat or jatti."  
  
"does anyone call you jatrian?"  
  
"only when they can be bothered, or they're sighing my name, because i've come home covered in blood, or something."  
  
"come home covered in blood? you're not even ten. what happened?"  
  
"oh, you really want to know? in the slums, all the little kids join gangs, otherwise they won't survive. now below us there are three gangs that are separate, but occasionally join together to fight off some rival from another sector. every gang in a sector has to join with the other gangs of that same sector at least once. now, about a month back, the sector five gangs decide that sector four would be a good place to run the drugs they do. have the drugs coming out of sector four, sector four gets the blame, bye bye sector four. now sector five has been pushy with all the other sectors, so sector four decides to teach sector five a lesson. there are heaps more kids in sector four than anywhere else in the slums, so we've got the numbers easy, but sector five has got better territory, so we have to play tactics. yours truly is the sector four military tactician, thus we win, and sector five has to keep it's drug operations in sector five. one time just a fortnight ago, some dork in sector five, believing that once they get rid of me, sector four will be weakened sufficiently to take over, sends over five thugs to get rid of a tactician that has spent quite a lot of their young life learning self-defence and fencing. these activites in real life are quite messy, thus i come home covered in blood."  
  
she took a deep breath and had a drink.  
  
"how big were these five?"  
  
"oh, teens, maybe the biggest was fifteen."  
  
"and you defeated them all by yourself?"  
  
"i fight with my brains, except when the person i'm fighting is angry. my philosophy is rage beats brains beats brawn."  
  
"does that work?"  
  
"yes, when the opponent is angry, get more angry than they are and they're dead."  
  
"did you actually kill?"  
  
"i really tried not to, but they didn't give me much of a choice. three of them will live, though."  
  
"i see"  
  
she looked at him, trying to work out whether he was thinking something like 'the girl's a killer, disown her before she causes trouble', or 'three will live, you've got to be more ruthless; none of them should have survived', or even 'give me a pupil when they're young yet intelligent and they're mine for life'. he looked back at her, his head cocked to one side, to see if she would judge what he was thinking well.  
  
"maybe it's because i'm a girl, i don't know, maybe i just couldn't be bothered, but killing all of them just to prove a point?"  
  
she's good. very good. how, though?  
  
"it's something that develops over time. maybe one day you'll wake up, and in your next battle after that, you'll go 'i can't be bothered letting you live'. you are a very good judge of what people are thinking, though. how did that happen? you certainly didn't inherit that gift."  
  
"oh, i think it was something i picked up out of a natural makou fountain in nibelheim, like, at least five years ago now."  
  
"you picked something up out of a makou fountain? what possessed you to do that?"  
  
"the thing i picked up, i think. hey, i was, like, barely five at the time."  
  
"did you get sick afterwards?"  
  
"no, and my hand was in there for about five minutes, because i couldn't quite reach it the first time."  
  
sephiroth just shook his head.  
  
"oh, now everyone's going to the drawing room. some people look like they want to talk to you!"  
  
"maybe..."  
  
"jatri! where are you? oh there you are? has she been bothering you, general?"  
  
"i wouldn't say bothering."  
  
"oh good. come along now..."  
  
mrs. thriophe bundled jat out of the room. a politian came up to sephiroth, and immediately started talking to him, and boring him to death.  
  
***  
  
a little bit later, sephiroth found himself surrounded, without a polite way to tell everyone to piss off, being forced to listen to these boring people prattle on and on and on.  
  
"please excuse me gentlemen, there is a message for the general."  
  
jat had suddenly appeared at his elbow. "if you'll follow me, please?"  
  
"excuse me gentlemen." sephiroth turned on his heel and followed jat into the library.  
  
"there is no message. you just looked like you needed rescuing or else that man was looking a lot like a table."  
  
"why did you do that? and what do you mean, looking like a table?"  
  
"what are friends for? is it true that in some meeting somewhere everyone was procrastinating, and you stood up and brought masamune down through a table, and said that you were vexed?"  
  
"yes that's true. why do you want to be friends with me?"  
  
"i think that the coldness is a facade, and you're sensitive and lonely underneath, and real friends are what you need."  
  
"you read people too well. that's not normal."  
  
"i never said i was normal. so are we friends?"  
  
"you're not going to let me not say yes, are you?"  
  
"correct"  
  
"ok then, we'll be friends."  
  
she smiled broadly. "you're already starting to relax around me. i bet none of those people in there have heard sephiroth say 'ok'."  
  
"you know what the really ironic thing is?"  
  
"what?"  
  
"i've never liked children."  
  
"that's not ironic," she laughed, "that's hilarious!"  
  
he just HAD to smile at that. her joy seemed to be contagious.  
  
she looked at his smile, which when joyful is very beautiful, and sighed in happiness.  
  
"how many people have actually seen sephiroth happy and smiling?"  
  
"just two, so far."  
  
"let's sit down. what's your friend's name?"  
  
"he's called zax."  
  
"i don't suppose i could meet him one time?"  
  
"that would probably depend on what you spend your evenings doing."  
  
"oh, hang on, if anyone sees you and zax coming here, that'd have all sorts of repercussions."  
  
"you're right, that could be a problem. damn politics."  
  
a grin slowly appeared on her face. "where do you live?"  
  
"why?"  
  
"well, most evenings i've got nothing better to do, so i sort of sneak out of the house and hang with my friends in the slums. and i didn't just tell you that."  
  
"ah. well, on the top few levels of the shin-ra building there are quarters for certain high-ranking personnel that have no fixed address, or haven't bothered buying somewhere to stay in midgar somewhere. the higher the level, the higher the rank."  
  
"that's cruel. i s'pose shin-ra wants to keep his ranking officers in good shape."  
  
"yes, well..."  
  
"you'd be the very top level, with roof access through your quarters?"  
  
"yes. how are you going to manage?"  
  
"ah, even friends don't share ALL their trade secrets. what are you doing tomorrow night?"  
  
"i have no plans. i may look forward to seeing you then."  
  
"yes. do you want to make your escape now?"  
  
"escape?"  
  
"from the politians. that message was for you to call someone, and after the call, you had to leave straight away, and left your appologies with me?"  
  
"ah yes, that sounds good. thank you."  
  
"no problem."  
  
they went to the door, avoiding being seen by any of the guests or the other thriophes.  
  
"i'll see you tomorrow night."  
  
"yeah, goodnight, sephiroth"  
  
"good night." 


	3. Chapter Two A bit of fun

***  
  
sephiroth was sitting at his desk, this time glancing at the papers BEFORE signing them, when zax waltzed in.  
  
"hey seph, you look a bit pre-occupied. everything all good?"  
  
"yeah, everything's fine," he sighed, "i need to get out. let's go up to the roof."  
  
"good idea. lead on."  
  
they went up to the roof and went to stand at the railing, looking over midgar.  
  
"good evening. you must be zax."  
  
"ok, jatrian, how did you do that?"  
  
"ah, trade secrets. and please call me jat."  
  
"oh, who's this, seph?"  
  
"zax, this is jatrian, daughter of that **** thriophe. jat, this is zax buster, SOLDIER first class."  
  
"pleased to meet you."  
  
"ditto. so where'd you come from?"  
  
"ah, i've only just met you. i'm not even going to tell sephiroth."  
  
"come on!"  
  
"z-a-x!"  
  
"no, it's ok. let's just say that i can make my way around midgar quite proficiently."  
  
"you know seph, i can see this one in SOLDIER, when she's a bit bigger."  
  
"jat's nearly SOLDIER quality already."  
  
"i'm not, really!"  
  
"so you were lying? i don't think so."  
  
"no, i wasn't, but, but...!"  
  
"what makes you say she's SOLDIER quality?"  
  
"i think she can tell you, herself, zax."  
  
"well?"  
  
"i've, um, it was in self defence, mind you! well, i've, um, i've killed two people."  
  
"killed? dead?"  
  
"dead"  
  
"how do you feel about it?"  
  
"um, nothing, really."  
  
"what did i tell you?"  
  
"well, now. how old are you, jat?"  
  
"i turn ten next week."  
  
"ten!"  
  
"yeah, she's quite interesting, don't you think?"  
  
"she certainly is."  
  
"i have to agree as well."  
  
"hehehe. you are a funny one."  
  
"you're pretty laid back for a major."  
  
"and how do you know that i'm a major? did seph tell you?"  
  
"no, but you've got major's gloves on. and an epilette"  
  
"major's gloves? oh yeah! you know, only those that are really intimate with the tricks of the military know about the rank meanings of the gloves. and you're not even ten and you can recognise different epilettes? i AM impressed."  
  
"and we all know how difficult it is to impress major zax buster."  
  
"oh come now, seph, you don't have to be so sarcastic."  
  
"hey seph, don't worry about zax. he's just not used to someone other than sephiroth being smarter than him!"  
  
"oooh, feisty! what am i going to do with you?"  
  
"you're not going to do anything with her, smartarse."  
  
"hah! i wrecked you!"  
  
"why you..." zax suddenly darted forward and started tickling her. she laughed in spite of herself. zax was laughing too.  
  
watching his friends now attacking each other good naturedly, sephiroth smiled. after about five minutes, he actually started chuckling. they fought some more, then sephiroth burst out laughing in such as way that he hadn't done in memory.  
  
"yay! we got seph to laugh!"  
  
"he's cracking up! i'm just so hilarious."  
  
"oh yeah, it's that dreadful crazy mullet of yours."  
  
"oooh, you dissing my HAIR, now, you little squirt?"  
  
"i'm not dissing your hair, i'm bagging it!"  
  
"i'm sorry, but i can't let you do that." zax was trying desperately to maintain a serious face, but was failing miserably.  
  
"you two are complete idiots!"  
  
"and if it's going to cause more of this, then you ain't seen nuthin, yet!"  
  
"yeah, listen to squirt!"  
  
"oi!"  
  
"what, squirt?"  
  
sephiroth was just starting to calm down, when they start attacking each other again. NO ONE can keep a straight face when a little girl not even ten has managed to get a fully trained SOLDIER in a head-lock, without his letting her.  
  
"hey seph! safe me from squirt! she's gonna mess up my hair!"  
  
especially when the SOLDIER in question says things like that. 


	4. Chapter Three Party night

***  
  
jatrian was being made to have two parties for her tenth birthday, one for family, on the day, which was boring as all hell, and one for her aquaintences and her parents' and brother's friends.  
  
towards the end of that party, she decided that she needed some fresh air, the type you get seventy-odd floors above midgar, and sort of snuck away from the festivities.  
  
"yo seph!"  
  
"what?"  
  
"isn't squirt's party tonight?"  
  
"yes, it is. why?"  
  
"we-ll..."  
  
"is there a brain under there somewhere?"  
  
"oh, fine then."  
  
"apparently they're having fireworks."  
  
"really? i am so going up to the roof."  
  
"you do that."  
  
"oh, i just get here, and you're leaving? so sad."  
  
"ok, are you going to spill how you did that, this time?'  
  
"nope"  
  
"why don't you just leave it, zax? she's not going to let on how she does it."  
  
"oh, if we interrogate her properly..."  
  
"interrogate? oh no, major dipshit. no one's interrogating me!"  
  
"major dipshit? you are SO gone, squirt!"  
  
"hey, will you two quit it?"  
  
"ok, sorry seph."  
  
"consider it quit, for now. i will have my revenge on squirt thriophe."  
  
"will you now?"  
  
"i will."  
  
"whatever. anyway, seph, you're looking troubled."  
  
"am i?"  
  
"yeah, hey what's up?"  
  
"if they're that bad, you should share your troubles, so we can help out."  
  
"i don't think you can."  
  
"well, we won't know if you don't tell us!"  
  
"come on, or we'll be forced to keep annoying you about it, which will not be at all pleasant, so you can save yourself, and everyone, a whole lot of trouble."  
  
"you've known me for years, you know i have ways of making you talk."  
  
"i'm..."  
  
zax was about to say something encouraging, when jat suddenly punched him in the stomach, knocking all the wind out of him. he was shocked by the action, and looked at her questioningly. she gestured that it would be best if they just let sephiroth go at his own pace, or else he wouldn't tell them at all.  
  
"do you know why shin-ra wants all SOLDIERs to report immediately to a doctor if they experience a sudden increase in strength? because it shows that they're reacting to the makou used to enhance them, and it will make them lose their mind completely."  
  
they both had some idea of what may come next, but were desperately praying that it wasn't so.  
  
"i'm getting stronger. people are starting to place BETS to see how long it will be before i go insane. saying things when they think that i can't hear. stupid fools. what would they know?"  
  
sephiroth's mood had swung from worried for his future and his friends to extremely furious, and getting angrier, at the way people acted.  
  
zax and jat exchanged glances. their silent prayers had not been answered, and seph looked like he was going to do something highly dangerous either to them or someone else. it's quite hard for sephiroth to do something that will be a danger to himself.  
  
"um, seph? look, they're all just stupid dickheads, who wouldn't know their arse from their elbow. don't think about them."  
  
"yeah, look, you're not going insane. and we'll always be with you, insane or not."  
  
sephiroth's face stopped raging, and calmed. he looked out the window, a sad look on his face.  
  
"i hear you. maybe you should go?"  
  
"not just yet."  
  
"suit yourselves." his voice was subdued and quiet, but his anger had dissipated.  
  
***  
  
sephiroth was sitting motionless, with both legs crossed on his desk and his chin in his hands, staring off into space.  
  
zax had been sitting on the couch, occassionally trying to make conversation, before falling to sleep. he was just too exhausted to stay awake.  
  
jat was sprawled on an armchair, legs hanging over an arm, her back leaning on the other arm. she didn't talk at all. she didn't move much. she watched sephiroth for a while, and when zax had fallen asleep, she had smiled and watched him for a while, before going back to watch sephiroth. when she fell asleep, the only way you could tell was that her eyes were closed.  
  
sephiroth didn't sleep that night.  
  
in the morning, at about six thirty, a shaft of sunlight hit his face, bringing him back to the present. he smiled when he saw zax snoring gently on the couch and jat still sprawled sideways in an almost impossible way on the armchair.  
  
he got up, not without a teeny bit of stiffness, and threw open the windows. there was a slight breeze, and it seemed to be enough to wake the both of them.  
  
"hmm. (yawn) what time is it, seph? you good?"  
  
"it's six thirty, and yeah, i'm good."  
  
"good morning. did you sleep at ALL?"  
  
"no. doesn't your back hurt?"  
  
"what? oh, i've slept on worse. your chair is really comfy."  
  
"sorry i fell asleep, i just couldn't keep my eyes open. can i use your shower seph?"  
  
"yeah... hey jatti, you slept here!"  
  
"you noticed? yeah, so?"  
  
"i doubt that your parents will be impressed."  
  
"i'm sure i'll think of something."  
  
"are you sure?"  
  
"yeah. i've stayed out late before..."  
  
"but a whole night?"  
  
"yeah, could be a bit a of a problem, that."  
  
"i'm sorry, i should have taken you home."  
  
"but people would have wondered what the hell i was doing not at my own birthday party."  
  
"it would cause fewer uncomfortable questions than this."  
  
"s'pose so. i'm off now. tell zax that if major dipshit tries anything stupid, he will know squirt's wrath."  
  
he smiled "sure. he'll laugh at that. bye"  
  
"see ya"  
  
she went to the window, looked at it for a couple of seconds before climbing out, and disappearing.  
  
"how does she do that?"  
  
***  
  
barely a week later, both zax and seph are called out to a mission in nibelheim. 


End file.
